Two-pilot channel estimation scheme for amplify-and-forward relay networks.

SUMMARY In amplify-and-forward relay networks, the equivalent channel to the destination node is not independent of equivalent noise and the equivalent noise does not follow a Gaussian distribution. Therefore, it is difficult to directly estimate the equivalent channel based on traditional optimal rules. In this paper, we propose a two-pilot estimation (TPE) scheme that decomposes a non-Gaussian noise channel estimation problem into two channel estimation problems in Gaussian noise. In TPE scheme, the relay-destination channel is first estimated by one pilot and the other pilot is used to estimate the equivalent channel with the aid of the estimated relay-destination channel. Simulation results show that the TPE scheme can achieve less estimation error and larger system throughput than other existing channel estimators in slow fading case. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]